Stephen Tall

"What would I do if I were in your shoes?" That was the question I suggested to ConservativeHome’s Tim Montgomerie we might each answer on behalf of our respective parties – he on LibDemVoice - and me here: the idea being to champion the policies we think our Coalition partner is mad not to run with and make their own.

Dear reader, you might very well question my credentials to proffer such unsolicited advice. After all, I’m a signed-up Lib Dem who doesn’t want to offer succour to the Conservative party. Moreover, I represent a party which isn’t – how can I put this charitably? – riding high in the polls just now.

Why don’t people like me vote Conservative?

I hope, though, that you’ll give what follows a hearing, both because I’m a liberal first and a LibDem second, but more advantageously from your perspective because I think the Conservatives are missing a trick in appealing to a tranche of voters you will need to build a majority.

Some of those voters are people quite a lot like me. (Not actually me, I hasten to add: my Lib Dem roots are far too deep.) I self-identify as both an economic and social liberal – but if we were States-side I would just as happily self-identify as a fiscal conservative and social liberal.